The government has launched a competition to find more cultural and natural heritage places which are fit to become future UK World Heritage Sites. It plans on putting forward fewer sites for consideration by UNESCO, with a streamlined application system to help ensure success.

Local authorities and others throughout the UK, plus the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, will have the opportunity to nominate such sites for assessment by an independent expert panel. A new 'Tentative List' of candidate sites will then be drawn up for submission to UNESCO in 2011, with the first nomination going forward from 2012. Those on the last UK Tentative List, drawn up in 1999, which have not so far gone forward for consideration by UNESCO, will be able to apply again for inclusion on the new list. Culture minister Margaret Hodge said: "To be designated a World Heritage Site is a real honour and a rare privilege. It can bring social and economic benefits to areas chosen, and it's great for tourism, promoting the profile of our cultural and natural heritage to the world in an eye-catching way.

"But bidding for World Heritage status carries a cost, and we want to be sure that public resources are well deployed. In future, we want a process that ensures that only sure-fire winners with outstanding universal value go forward. This means we will make fewer nominations, selecting sites from a new, shorter and more focused list." Pic: Stonehenge, Wiltshire, UK, an existing UNESCO World Heritage Site. ©UNESCO / F.Bandarin